Plastic Sea, Perfect Storm (2026) - Numb. Ed. LAST COPIES
Help Us Fund This Book
With Plastic Sea, Perfect Storm we aim to create a book that does justice to the complexity of the challenges in the southern European region where so much of our food is grown. The result is a substantial 264-page book, plus the 32-page insert Plastic Symbiosis. All about the hidden costs of our food, the people who work there, and the exploitation of the land. We could have made the book cheaper, but that would have compromised the quality—and we didn’t want that.
Producing 1,000 copies is a major financial undertaking. To make it possible, we’re offering a numbered, limited edition of 100 copies: the Help-Us-Fund-This-Book-Edition. This edition features a special dust jacket, is numbered 1-100 and is signed by Arnold and Rob. Will you help us? You’ll pay double the price for a copy, but in doing so, you’ll help bring this book into the world and support our independent visual storytelling.
PS: The cover of this special edition might change. Click here the see the regular edition. About the book:
What happens when a crisis catches you so off guard that it makes you physically ill and deeply depressed? You experience the loss of the world as it once was. Psychologists call this ambiguous loss: the world still exists, but something essential seems to have been taken from you. Lawlessness, pollution, climate change and an economy relentlessly propelled by profit and growth can together awaken a profound sense of powerlessness, of mourning for something intangible that seems to be gone forever. Grief can spark anger and action, but also acceptance and resignation: let the storm rage. In the plastic sea, modern Europe reveals itself in all its nakedness.
In southern Spain lies Europe’s largest vegetable garden: an endless sea of plastic greenhouses, visible even from space. Thanks to abundant sunshine and efficient water use, it supplies cheap vegetables and fruit to our supermarkets. But behind this efficiency lie the exploitation of migrants, inhumane living conditions, and ecological devastation. How long will Europe tolerate exploitation and ecological ruin—all for the sake of cheap produce?
Plastic Sea, Perfect Storm is part of The Europeans; a portrait of modern Europe at a time when the continent is struggling. In this multi-year project, photographer Rob Hornstra and writer Arnold van Bruggen travel from region to region and from theme to theme, creating a portrait of the European heartland in the 2020s.
This is a pre-sale. The book will be launched on Thursday, May 7, 2026, at 16:00 in Domo Amsterdam. Shipping of books will start from Monday, May 11, 2026. The accompanying exhibition, Plastic Sea, Perfect Storm, will be on view from end September 2026, through February 2027 at Kunsthal Rotterdam.
Publisher: The Europeans
Paperback with dustjacket: 264pp + 32 pp insert
Dimensions: 230 x 275 x 22 mm
Bilingual: Spanish / English
Price: 115 euro
